New Beginnings
by L. Insomniac Woods
Summary: Duo begins dating a girl he met at the club while Hildy hides her true feelings for him, Heero is trying to act NORMAL, and everyone is discovering something new about themselves. A little supernatural stuff in here...please R&R ^^
1. Hidden Feelings and Meetings

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing. The only people I own are any original characters you see within.

Note: This is a revision of a story I began in the fifth grade. Guess what?  I'm in seventh now, so it should be a _lot _better. And longer, too! Now, on with the fic!

New Beginnings Chapter 1: Hidden Feelings and Meetings 

            The small-framed young woman sat quietly on the couch, sipping her herbal tea with the latest news flashing across the television screen. Every now and then, her eyes and mind would focus on the screen, but the majority of the time her mind was on another, more important subject: the man that she shared an apartment with. He was currently at a popular club, probably having the time of his life and flirting with random girls, while she was at home, sick with post-nasal drip. 

But the again, it was her fault that she was alone. They had planned on going to the club together, but then she became ill. He had insisted that he stay home with her, but she had been more adamant in telling him to go on and have fun. After nearly a half an hour debate, he finally said he'd go, but he insisted that she let him call every once in a while to check up on her. She hadn't objected.

            She didn't tell him that the real reason she insisted that he'd go was because now it hurt her heart to be with him. 

            Duo, she thought miserably, why can't you love me like I love you? Tears filled her eyes and her nose began to run. She snatched up a few tissues and blew her nose hard, causing her ears to pop. She threw the tissue in her garbage bag, which was actually just a brown paper bag inside of a white plastic one. Duo had put it there for her so she wouldn't have to move off the couch to throw things away. In the table in front of her, he had also set up a tray with a carton of orange juice and a glass, a bottle of water, some crackers to go with the soup he given her before he had left, a medicine cup, and her medicine, which had a sticky note on it that said, "You'd better take this when you're supposed to!" 

            He's so considerate to me, she thought. He takes care of me like a big brother. She was silent for a while. That's all he sees me as: a little sister. The woman's vision became blurry as tears began to well up again. She blinked them away, angry with herself. 

            There's no use in crying, Hildy, she told herself. He doesn't want you to be his girl. You can live with that. Hildy's eyes focused on the television again for a brief five minutes, then her mind began to stray again.

            Can I really live with that? she thought and burst into tears.   

            People danced wildly to the loud, blaring music, enjoying themselves to the fullest. Some sat at the bar, drinking and attempting to talk the their friends over the music. Others stood along the walls, observing the others and tapping their feet to the beat. Duo Maxwell, the former Gundam pilot, gleefully removed himself from the dance floor, disorientated in a drunk sort of way, telling the pouting girls that he had been dancing with that he needed to take a break and get a drink.

            "I'll be right back, I promise!" he reassured them, grinning broadly. They called back to him, saying that they'd be looking forward to his return, but they weren't going to stop dancing because he wasn't there. He reached the bar out of breath and ordered himself a drink, trying almost desperately to regain the proper amount of air in his lungs. The bartender handed Duo his drink, a slight smile on his face. 

            "You drunk, kid?" he asked, his smile broadening to a grin.

            "Nah, of course not!" Duo cried out, over doing an imitation of a drunken man. "I'm jus' havin' a good time!" He laughed, and then emptied half of his cup, sitting it down with a comment of, "Ahhh, tha's the stuff!" 

            Duo and the bartender laughed simultaneously, and then the latter went back to serving his other customers. 

            "The women seem to enjoy you, Duo."

            Duo's eyes went wide at the sound of the monotone voice beside him. His head snapped to the right and he gasped audibly.

            "No way this is Heero Yuy sitting next to me, at a club, where there are people _socializing!" _Duo cried. Heero nodded at him. 

            "No one ever said I was socializing _with _them," Heero replied. Duo laughed more cheerfully than he did normally.

            "Aw, I gotta give you credit for comin' outside your box," he laughed. Heero gave him a near Death Glare.

            "For the last time, Duo, I don't have a box," Heero stated. Duo made motions with his hands, squaring his head into and invisible box.

            "I'm. In. The. Box," Duo teased.

            "You're going to be in the ground, "Heero threatened, his voice low. Duo made a sliding motion across his eyes to imitate opening an eye slot. 

            "Was that the Heero Yuy version of a growl?" Duo asked. "'Cause if it is, it's pathetic. I can do better; listen to me!"

            Duo then proceeded to growl at Heero, who raised an eyebrow.

            "Are you drunk, Duo?" Heero asked, an undetectable hint of amusement and concern in his voice. "If you are, I'll have to drive you home…"

            "Why do people keep asking me that? I'm NOT DRUNK!" Duo cried indignantly, nearly falling out of his chair and managing a, "Whoops!" before he righted himself in his chair. Heero looked at him skeptically. "Really, I'm fine I'm just having a lot of fun! Besides, I'm just eighteen, I couldn't drink anything alcoholic legally!"

            Heero's look was even more skeptical. "I'm driving you home, Duo."

            "Oh, fine!" Duo gave in, knowing that it would be in vain to try and change Heero's mind. "Bother," he muttered, then immediately wondered when he had started talking with a British accent. He was pondering this when Heero nudged him in the ribs.

            "Whu? Oh, Heero! Yeah, what is it?" Duo asked as he awakened from his stupor. Heero nodded in the direction of one of the walls. There was, among the other observers, a beautiful girl who seemed to stand out from the rest of the onlookers. She was tall and slender, with long, sandy brown hair, whose bangs fell over her eyes and was up in a high ponytail that stopped near her behind. On each of her wrists were thick gold bands, and she wore a pink, spaghetti strap belly shirt and slightly baggy khaki flares that hid most of her pink and white sneakers. Duo cat growled.

            "Pretty lady!" he grinned. She looked in his direction and smiled.

            "Dude, she wants to talk to you," Heero said, causing Duo to nearly choke on the drink he had just ordered.

            "Heero, did you just say _dude?" _Duo gasped. Heero managed to half-grinat him and said, "I'm trying, Duo. Go talk to the girl. She won't wait forever."

            "Uh, okay," Duo agreed, very bemused as he slid off his stool. "Heero is pointing out hot girls to me and he just said dude. Heero Yuy said _dude!_ Man he _is _tryin'!"

            As Duo walked over to where the girl was, he tried to compose himself and put a few stray hairs back into his braid. As soon as he was in front of her, she greeted him with the words, "Cool braid," which definitely caught him off guard. Now that he was up close to her, he could see that she had lively green eyes that seemed to glow with their own light.

            "Yeah, thanks!" he replied, staring into her eyes. "Your eyes are beautiful." Duo heard her voice accompany his sentence, and they laughed simultaneously.

            "I guess we both have a thing for eyes, huh?" she kidded, then extended her hand. "I'm Shaylee. Shaylee Jamenson."

            "Duo Maxwell," Duo introduced himself as he accepted her hand. "Shaylee…that's a pretty name for a pretty lady."

            Shaylee giggled. "You're a real charmer, huh?" she laughed. "But so am I." She then took both his wrists and pulled him towards the dance floor, saying, "Dance with me. I know you wanna!"

            "I'm not a good dancer," Duo lied, grinning boyishly. Shaylee snorted and said, "Yeah right, I saw you dancing with all those girls, ya' little flirt! Now c'mon and DANCE!"

            "If you insist," Duo grinned as he began dancing. She grinned as well, her grin filled with just as much mischief as his, and then danced along with him, the both of them trying to out-dance the other. After a few minutes, Shaylee danced up to Duo, her back to him.

            "You're a pretty good dancer!" she complimented. She knew he grinned before he replied, "You aren't too bad yourself!"

            "I figured you'd say that," she said to him, then turned around to dance facing him. Another girl tried to dance with them, but she couldn't stay with the highly energetic dancers and went to the bar to catch her rest. She sat down a few stools away from Heero and told the bartender, "Man, are those two some furious dancers!" 

            The bartender laughed and handed her her drink. "Couldn't keep up, huh?"

            She shook her head. "No way! Not with those two!" 

            "I still think he's drunk," the bartender said, causing Heero to chuckle inwardly. Duo and Shaylee were still trying to tire the each other out.  She must have a ­_lot _of energy to be keeping up with Duo, Heero thought as he watched the two dancing, neither of them showing any sign of fatigue. They danced non-stop for nearly an hour, when finally, out of breath and sweating, they came to the bar for a drink. Duo refused to let her pay for her own drink.

            "My treat," he said, grinning as he struggled for the second time that night to get enough air. The bartender gave them their drinks and the both of them drank the whole glass in one gulp, surprising both the bartender and Heero. Well, it didn't surprise Heero about Duo drinking it in one gulp; it was the fact that he and Shaylee did it at the exact same time. 

              "I think we'll need two more drinks," Duo said, smirking at Shaylee, who grinned back.

            "Yes, and this time in mugs please," Shaylee added. The bartender laughed and said, "You got it!" and went to retrieve their drinks.    

            "Thanks, Duo," Shaylee said, still a bit out of breath. "I'm having a great time with you."

            "No problem," Duo replied, lacking just as much air as his dance partner did. "Just answer me one thing."

            "Sure, what is it?"

            "Why in the world were you standing on that wall? I thought you were just a pretty girl that couldn't dance, but damn!" 

            Shaylee broke out laughing, the cheer in her voice causing Heero to half smile again. But no one noticed that. 

So, whaddaya guys think? Is it good? Does it suck? Please tell me, I wanna know! I wanna know the answers, no more lies!! Ahem, too much Linkin Park for my own sake…anyways please review peoples! But please, no flames unless you have a really good reason. Anyways, until the next chapter! Seeya!


	2. Memories

 Hello, peoples! I should have updated a LOT sooner, but I've lost the floppy disk with the first chapter on it and I want to keep all my chapters on the same disk. Well, THE STORY MUST GO ON! And, will somebody please tell me the correct spelling of Hildy's name? It's driving me up a wall! Also, Heero's memory in Endless Waltz about that mission gone wrong, I'm making it a reality, just in case anyone asks. Or was it already a reality and he was just reliving the memory in a dream….?

Disclaimer: What crack head in their right mind would think I own Gundam Wing? I own all original characters in this story, that is all.

Chapter 2: Memories

            "Ooo, nice car, Heero!" Duo complemented as Heero turned off the car alarm and opened the door. 

            "And it's Duo-proof. Here." Heero tossed the keys over to Duo so he could unlock his door.

            "Ha ha, very funny." Duo unlocked his door and got in. "Nice Pleather, Heero." Heero glared at him as he snatched the keys out of Duo's hand and put them in the ignition, and then said, "It's leather." 

            Heero had driven to the first stoplight before Duo responded, "Are you sure it is?"

            "Duo, I _can _push you out of this car. While I'm driving it sixty miles an hour," Heero said. Duo grinned. "You wouldn't dare." Heero looked at him with his old emotionless expression. 

            "I'll be good now. I promise I won't make fun of your Pleather anymore." Duo heard his door unlock. "Okay, I'll quit, seriously!" 

            Heero locked Duo's door back. "That's better." Heero drove on, listening and occasionally nodding as Duo talked on and on about the girl he had been dancing with. Duo had been going on for at least a half an hour before Heero actually spoke to him again. 

            "What did you say her name was again?" he asked Duo, who smiled as he answered, "Her name is Shaylee. Shaylee Jamenson. And _she _didn't think I was drunk!"  Heero eyes widened slightly, and he coughed unexpectedly.

            "You okay?" Duo asked, looking at his friend. He had never known Heero to react like that to a _name._ "Hey, do you know her?"

            Trying to look as though he had recovered from the shock, he cleared his throat and stared straight ahead at the road in front of him. "She's a rich girl, almost richer than Quatre. Her father is a descendant of the man who made the first computer chip."

            "Wow, really? I wonder what she was doing there then?" Duo pondered as he put his arms behind his head and looked out the window, though he was really watching Heero out the corner of his eye. 

Heero continued to look at the road, trying to make his face unreadable as possible, but Duo was an expert at reading expressions, even Heero's. When Heero wore his old emotionless expression, the only way Duo could figure out what he was thinking was how high a position his eyebrows were in and exactly how open Heero's eyes were. By now, Duo could read Heero, or anyone for that matter, like a book. The expression he saw now was the one Heero had when he was either deep in thought or remembering something from long ago. Without drawing Heero's attention, Duo looked harder at Heero's eyebrows. It wasn't a painful memory; it seemed like it was more perplexing if anything. Duo turned his attention away from Heero and back to outside the window, which showed that it was now raining a bit harder than a sprinkle. He knew he could get no more information from looking at Heero's face. He'd just have to pry at Heero a little later.

Heero stared hard at the road ahead of him as a memory played before his eyes like a movie. It was the memory of a mission gone wrong, where more than just his target was destroyed. Innocent people were killed, but a little girl he had just met that day was also murdered, and it was all because he didn't calculate one possibility.  The most perplexing thing about the memory wasn't how he had made a mistake and killed all those people, but it was the strange phenomenon that occurred while he was among the burning buildings, still in shock and unable to move.

He had looked to the left of him for some unknown reason and had gasped as he saw a figure in the flames. At first he had thought he was just hallucinating, but he knew he was wrong as soon as the figure started to come closer and closer. _It was walking out of the flames. _As it approached, the figure took on a more feminine shape, and became clearer to him. He stared, bug-eyed the whole time, his mind screaming at him to leave before something happened to him, but his legs remained rooted to the spot, and his eyes were fixed on the girl, and on her own eyes, which were _glowing red._ His eyes moved for a split second to the strange symbol on her head, which appeared to be a circle with wings resembling a butterfly's. 

Once out of the flames, he saw that she had long, sandy brown hair that was in a braid down her back. She appeared to be his age, and her skin looked as smooth as if she hadn't just walked through those flames. The only thing about her that seemed affected by the flames was her clothes, which had burned halfway off her body. She stopped walking only a few feet away from him. Her mystically glowing eyes which had captured his entire being looked at him, filled with a deep pain and sorrow. 

And then she opened her mouth and whispered one single word to him, which had burned a hole right through his heart:

"Why?"

As unexpected as her appearance and her speech, her eyes ceased to glow and turned into a would-be bright green color, and she fell to the ground. Shocked, scared, mystified, and confused all at once, Heero kneeled down beside her, and with a shaky hand, touched her soft hair. She was real, no doubt about it. Heero began to shake uncontrollably now, and staggered away in a dazed fright from the girl's motionless body. Tears were now spilling out of his eyes, and he finally turned around and fled from the strange girl and the burning buildings.

Later, he had searched for information about the girl and discovered everything he could about her. He _had _intended to apologize in private to the girl's parents, but he never found the time, nor the courage to do so…

"Heero, you passed my apartment." 

Heero snapped out of his sudden melancholy mood at the sound of Duo's voice. Heero looked in his rearview mirror and saw Duo's apartment building going farther away from them.

"You're right. Damn," he swore, angry for letting himself hint to Duo that something was wrong, although Duo already knew something was up. Heero turned around and headed back for Duo's apartment.

When Duo left the car, he left it knowing more than that something was wrong with Heero. He knew exactly what it was that was bothering the guy. He had saw Heero's memory, but he himself didn't know how he did…

Ooo, freaky happenings! Sorry to keep you people waiting so long, I have just been distracted lately. But, school will be out soon, so expect more quicker! Thanks for the reviews, and keep reviewing! Sayonara!


	3. IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

Ok, I wanted to let everybody know that I'm still alive, but I'm on punishment. I don't know when I'll get off, and the only reason I had the chance to type this up was that I'm at school at the current moment. I am confined to my room , with no access to my TV, the computer, or anything electronic. I'm only allowed out to got to the bathroom and to eat. I am still writing chapters, since I have plenty of time now, and I will update as soon as I get off punishment. Thank you for your time, and thank you everyone for all your reviews. 


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